Your Excellency Minister Mulyani,
My friend President Malpass,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon from Geneva. I'm delighted to join you for this historic moment.
I would particularly like to thank Minister Mulyani and the government of Indonesia for your leadership in creating the FIF as a key part of your G20 Presidency. Terima kasih, Indonesia.
I also thank Italy for its work last year with Indonesia to form and Chair the G20 Joint Finance-Health Taskforce for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
And I welcome and thank our founding donors, co-investor countries, implementing partners and civil society representatives.
I would like to say a special thank you to our colleagues from WHO and the World Bank, especially Bruce, Priya Scott, and Mamta.
You have all played a vital role in bringing us to this point, and will continue to be essential for the success of the FIF.
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We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a seismic shock to global health and the global economy.
But we also know that this will not be the last pandemic. The next one is a matter of when, not if.
The effects of climate change, urbanization and deforestation all mean that the frequency, severity and economic impact of epidemics and pandemics are only going to get bigger, unless we take concerted and coordinated action, as one global community.
The suffering and loss we have all endured will be in vain unless we learn the painful lessons that COVID-19 is teaching us, and put in place the measures to make the world safer.
There have been multiple reviews of the global response to the pandemic, with more than 300 recommendations.
At the request of our Member States, in May this year WHO published a white paper with 10 key proposals for strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness, response and resilience.
Importantly, our Member States have affirmed that the International Health Regulations must remain the foundation of that architecture, supplemented by a new international accord, which as you know is now being negotiated.
A recurring theme of the reviews, and one of the 10 key proposals in our White Paper, is to create a new Financial Intermediary Fund to provide catalytic and gap-filling funding for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.
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The vital role of the FIF will be to rapidly close critical gaps globally, regionally and nationally, in core capacities for implementing the International Health Regulations, with a risk-based approach, and with countries in the driver's seat.
This will require careful analysis and prioritization, which will be the hardest job for the Board and the Technical Advisory Panel.
As the custodian of the IHR, WHO looks forward to playing its central coordinating role as Chair of the Technical Advisory Panel, and in providing technical leadership and guidance to the board.
Thank you all once again for everything you have done to bring us to this point.
The task before is urgent, so I challenge you to work with the urgency this work demands, to finalize the founding documents, so we can focus on other immediate priorities and issue the first call for proposals before the G20 leaders meet in November.
WHO is totally committed to playing our part to make the FIF a success, and to build a healthier, safer, fairer future for all the people of the world.
I thank you. Terima kasih. Grazie mille.
